some reporting notes

The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC)

Introduction
The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is the global trade body and professional institute for agencies and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research. Since its formation in London in 1996 with just 7 members, it has grown into a trade body whose purpose is to define and develop the industry on an international scale with better professional standards for both companies and individuals.

The latest initiative is the establishment of the AMEC US Agency Research Leaders Group as our first International Chapter and which has the objective of engaging leading research professionals in new industry thinking. Through this commitment we aim to grow the industry, enabling wider recognition in all countries where members operate. AMEC currently has members in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan,Macedonia, Malaysia, Norway,Portugal, Romania, Russia,Scandinavia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.

All AMEC Full members are bound by the AMEC Quality Assurance Code and provide professional, independent and impartial communications planning, evaluation and research. They guarantee technical expertise and ensure best practice, best quality and best value to their clients.



Muckrackers
A muckraker is, primarily, a reporter or writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports involving a host of social issues, broadly including crime and corruption and often involving elected officials, political leaders and influential members of business and industry.

These writers focused on a wide range of issues including the monopoly of Standerd Oil; cattle processing and meat packing; patent medicines;child labor; and wages,labor , and working conditions in industry and agriculture. In a number of instances, the revelations of muckraking journalists led to public outcry, governmental and legal investigations, and, in some cases, legislation was enacted to address the issues the writers' identified, such as harmful social conditions; pollution; food and product safety standards; sexual harassment; unfair labor practices; fraud; and other matters. The work of the muckrakers in the early years, and those today, span a wide array of legal, social, ethical and public policy concerns.

The mid 19th Century saw an increase in the kind of reporting that would come to be called "muckraking."By the 1900s, magazines such asColler's Weekly, Munsey's and McClure's were already in wide circulation and read avidly by the growing middle class.

Contemporary muckrakers

* Ben Bagdikian — journalist and major American Media Critic, also the dean emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism; author of The Media Monopoly and The New Media Monopoly

* Donald Barlett and James Steele — longtime investigative reporting team, now with Vanity Fair.

* Wayne Barrett — investigative journalist, senior editor of the Village Voice; wrote on mystique and misdeeds in Rudy Giuliani's conduct as mayor of New York City, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (2006)

* Richard Behar — investigative journalist, two-time winner of the 'Jack Anderson Award'. Anderson himself once praised Behar as "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs"

Noam Chomsky - a high-level, observant, circumspect muckraker working within the academic landscape.


Soft news

News, as in a newspaper or television report, that does not deal with formal or serious topics and events.soft news is background information or human-interest stories. Arts, entertainment and lifestyles were considered soft news. One difference between hard and soft news is the tone of presentation. A hard news story takes a factual approach: What happened? Who was involved? Where and when did it happen? Why?

A soft news story tries instead to entertain or advise the reader. You may have come across newspaper or TV stories that promise "news you can use." Examples might be tips on how to stretch properly before exercising, or what to look for when buying a new computer.

Horse race journalism

Horse race journalism is a term used to describe instances of political journalism of elections that resemble coverage of horse races because of focus on polling data, public perception instead of candidate policy, and almost exclusive reporting on candidate differences rather than similarities. "For journalists, the horse-race metaphor provides a framework for analysis. A horse is judged not by its absolute speed or skill but in its comparison to the speed of other horses, and especially by its wins and losses."


Types Jourmalism

Journalism refers to the news or feature stories (light, entertainment stories) that are expressed either in a descriptive way or concise pattern through different types of media. A journalist reports news, which can be used in print, on television, aired on radio or even published on the Internet. The main purpose of a journalist is to report news with accurate facts. However, throughout the years, there have been different types of journalism developed that have given different dimensions to the field of mass media. Read on to know more about the various types of journalism.


Fashion journalism: Fashion journalism is all about articles or reports related to the fashion world. Journalists are also known as fashion writers or fashion editors. The primary job is to cover the latest in the fashion business or develop lifestyle articles. Such fashion articles can be found in magazines and newspapers. Today, there are many television channels that cater only to fashion, which gives ample opportunity for journalists who have a passion to cover such topics.


News journalism: Here, the primary aim of the journalist is to report news in a straight-forward manner that covers all the required facts. The style is direct with focus on the gist of the story with other necessary points. The news style should be concise and precise. The facts must be crosschecked which makes the news item as authentic as possible without any media bias. Here, the news story can be for the print media, television, radio, etc. Such news pieces often cover politics and social movements. News stories based on political suppression, public movements or abuse of human rights have proved instrumental in effecting many a social change, or giving voice to the oppressed. Similarly, cultural events are also covered in news journalism.


Celebrity journalism: As the name suggests, the journalist is connected to news and events related to celebrities from the entertainment world and also includes celebrities from other fields such as music, sports, dance, art, politics, etc. This journalism is all about news that is related to their professional and personal life. Reporting gossip is one of the angles of celebrity journalism, wherein journalists are often accused of misconstruing news or quotes in a deliberate fashion. This journalism is particularly popular with newspapers, magazines and television.


Investigative journalism: This type of journalism is about unearthing facts and studying cases that may require more efforts, which can take months or even years. Journalists who specialize in investigative journalism create headlines with news that expose scandals. Sometimes, persistent followup of a story proves beneficial to uncover some hitherto unsolved cases. This would require in-depth research from the journalist along with evidence.


Sports journalism: Here, journalists spend hours reporting on a particular sport event. A journalist has to report the accurate facts and statistics related to that event. Interviews with celebrity sport stars are yet one of the interesting features of sports journalism. Although sports-lovers watch the live coverage thanks to the media, there are many people who still enjoy reading or watching in-depth details about the event.


Citizen journalism: Here, it is not the professional journalists who are responsible for the news reports. Any citizen can participate and report news to the media. He/she collects and reports news to the media and participates voluntarily to offer help to the media. They bring to notice issues that may have been missed by media houses.


Environmental journalism: There are many journalists who prefer to cover issues related to the environment and its protection and conservation. Environmental journalists may only report about the news while some work for a cause.


Business and finance journalism: Here, the journalist or reporter covers in-depth reports about the latest in business, launch of products, stock markets etc. There are many shows dedicated only for business news on television whereas in newspapers, one can find a special section dedicated to this subject.



A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document.
A set of standards for a specific organization is often known as "house style". Style guides are common for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of various academic disciplines, medicine, journalism, the law, government, business, and industry.


Organizations advocating for social minorities sometimes establish what they believe to be fair and correct language treatment of their audiences.
Some style guides focus on graphic design, focusing on such topics as typography and white space. Web site style guides cover a publication's visual and technical aspects, along with text.
Many style guides are revised periodically to accommodate changes in conventions and usage. The Associated Press, for example, revises its stylebook annually

Types Of Lead
A lead (or an intro) is the beginning paragraph for a story. It is the hardest part to write as it sets the tone and introduces the reader to the rest of the story. A good lead paints a vivid picture of the story with a few words. Not many reporters can produce sharp, original leads. Writers of little talent and scant judgment load their leads with official sources, official titles, official phrases, even official quotes, and produce long-winding, cumbersome and dull leads. If the lead is not effective, the reader may skip the story. It should be appropriate for the story. The lead must be accurate, short and crisp. The lead should reflect the mood of the story. A routine lead is a short summary of an event. But if the story is interesting, a wide varieties of lead can be tried out. This chapter cites several examples from The Professional Journalist and The AP Writing Handbook.

Straight lead (or Summary lead)
A good lead incorporates the inverted pyramid style with the most important facts first. It tells readers what they want to know in a creative manner. If the reader only read the lead, he or she would have a solid grasp of the story. The above accident report can be written in a straight lead. Journalists often resort to summary leads pressed for time.
E.g. Two children at play were killed today when a sports car jumped the curb outside Prospect Park and ran them down. Twelve in the group were injured.
Police Chief J.W. Carmichael attributed the tragedy to reckless driving. The driver, slightly injured, was . . .
Descriptive lead
A descriptive lead describes how an event happened rather than simply telling what the event is about. Eyewitness accounts can provide the background for writing lucid descriptions which help the reader to visualise a news situation.
E.g. BRIGHTON, England (UPI) -- Mrs. Pamela Bransden slowly counted five, snapped into a hypnotic trance, and gave birth to an eight-pound baby. It was as easy as that.
Quotation lead
Quotes frequently are the essential documentation for a lead and should be used immediately after a paraphrase that summarises them. Here paraphrasing the verbatim quotation permits the removal of unnecessary words. But if a verbatim quotation itself is very important or interesting, it can be the lead itself.
E.g. When a fellow engineering student was murdered by John David in his hostel room in a ragging rage, the lead for a follow-up story was a Biblical quotation found on the door of the culprit.
"Peace unto those who enter here."
Question lead
Many editors dislike question lead on the basis that people read newspapers to get answers, and not to be asked questions. But if the question is provocative, it may be used as a lead.
E.g. What is the first thing that a woman buys when she is advised that she won $2,50,000 in a jingle contest?
Personal lead
It involves the use of the first person singular in the lead. Normally such a use is discouraged except for a columnist or such privileged writers.
E.g. (By Reg Murphy, while editor of the Atlanta Constitution, after being released by a kidnapper)
When the tall, heavy, garishly dressed stranger appeared at the door, it was clear this was trouble.
You' lead (or Direct Address lead)
The `You' lead is intended to make a personal appeal to the reader involved in a complicated situation. The second-person approach reaches out to involve the reader and capture his/her attention.
E.g. Ski fans, here's your opportunity!
Contrast lead
To vary monotony, a saga can be split into two sentences -- the first of which refers to the humble beginning and the second to the hero's latest triumph. When Van Cliburn, the pianist, returned from a musical triumph in Moscow, one reporter wrote:
E.g. Harvey Lavan (Van) Cilburn Jr. of Kilgore, Tex., came home from Russia today with 17 pieces of luggage. They bespoke his triumph as pianist in Moscow. He had three when he went over.
Delayed lead (or suspended interest lead)
A situation can be exploited in an interesting way so that an ordinary item stands out. The reporter delves in several paragraphs to find out what had happened. The reader must get the story by reading to the end of the story.
E.g. Dwight David Eisenhower once said he would rather win the Medal of Honour than be president. Dwight Harold Johnson -- who was named for Dwight Eisenhower -- said once to a friend that ``winning the medal has changed my life so much I don't know if I'll ever get my head straight again. But I know this. Nobody's hero forever.''
Friday, April 30, in the drizzle of a Detroit dawn, Dwight Johnson died but not as a hero. He died in the emergency room of a Detroit hospital with three bullet wounds in his side and one in his head. He was shot, according to police, by a store owner he had tried to rob.
Blind identification lead
If the person concerned is not well known in the community, his/her name is less important than other salient facts that identify the person. eg. "a 80-year-old woman" instead of her name.
Anecdotal lead
The anecdotal lead is used when the anecdote is bright and applicable and not too wasteful of space. It brings the reader quickly into a news situation that might not attract his attention if it were routinely written.
E.g. David and Kay Craig's two-year-old marriage is a second one for both and their story is one that is being repeated with increasing frequency across the country.
Each was married for the first time at 18. David's marriage lasted through five years and two children. Kay's first marriage ended in divorce after a year and eight months.
Gag (or funny) lead
A journalist who writes a funny story put up the saddest face in a newsroom. Journalistic homour requires the skilled and practice.
E.g. Here is how an AP reporter wrote when a woman broke her leg trying to climb out of a locked London public toilet: LONDON -- What's a lady do when trapped in a loo?
Literary allusion lead
Parallelling the construction of a nursery rhyme or part of a well-known literary creation can add to variety.
E.g. Mary had a little camera, and everywhere that Mary went the camera was sure to go.
Mary Richards' perseverance in carrying her camera on every trip with her anthropologist husband has resulted in the publication of her first book, a collection of photographs of natives in seldom-visited areas of South America.

topics related with media

 

MEDIA CONVERGENCE

phenomenon involving the interlocking of computing and information technology companies, telecommunications networks, and content providers from the publishing worlds of newspapers, magazines, music, radio, television, films, and entertainment software. Media convergence brings together the “three Cs”—computing, communications, and content.

Convergence has occurred at two primary levels:

1. Technologies—creative content has been converted into industry-standard digital forms for delivery through broadband or wireless networks for display on various computer or computer-like devices, from cellular telephones to personal digital assistants (PDAs) to digital video recorders (DVRs) hooked up to televisions.

2. Industries—companies across the business spectrum from media to telecommunications to technology have merged or formed strategic alliances in order to develop new business models that can profit from the growing consumer expectation for “on-demand” content.

Some industry analysts see media convergence as marking the twilight of the “old media” of print and broadcasting and the rise of “new media” associated with digital publishing. Among the major changes associated with digital publishing is the growth of a “flatter” publishing structure that allows one-to-one and many-to-many distributions of content. This development contrasts sharply with the one-to-many distribution that was characteristic of 20th-century mass communications. Digital publishing also has empowered many ordinary individuals to become involved directly or through collaborative efforts in creating new content because of the dramatically reduced barriers to producing and distributing digital content over the Internet.

While these developments have challenged the business models of old media as they developed in the 20th century, the ability of these companies to adapt to the changing landscape should not be dismissed. Old media, or big media, is very experienced in producing content, attracting and aggregating audiences, and anticipating changes in consumer demands and expectations. Big media companies are also highly capitalized and often enter the new media environment through mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships, as seen with NBC Universal, an American media conglomerate, which formed a partnership with the Microsoft Corporation to develop the MSNBC cable and Internet news service in 1996. Similarly, in 2005 international media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch acquired MySpace, an Internet social networking Web site, in order to leverage his News Corporation into an established online community.

Market fragmentation in the Internet age

Traditionally, advertisers could rely on reaching a large, stable audience of potential customers through print, radio, and television ads. While such traditional advertising media helped to establish some of the most successful and well-known brands, audience fragmentation in the 21st century complicated the picture, with the nature of different digital content delivery devices, such as cellular telephones and PDAs, often having a dramatic impact on the length of time that any particular message could hold the consumer’s attention.

online communities and social networking

The global popularization of the Internet was accompanied by a boom in electronic commerce, or e-commerce. British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, soon argued that this focus on commerce was misplaced, as it assumed that Internet users remained primarily consumers of information and content developed by others for online distribution. He argued that the core design principle of the Internet instead lay in the scope that it offered people to interact with one another, including in collaborations in which they became content creators in their own right.

Newspapers and magazines

Virtually all major newspapers and magazines now operate a Web site. It has been an ongoing challenge for these publishing industries to assess the exact impact that an online component has on their business models and their broader operational structures as distributors of news, information, and entertainment.In modern societies worldwide, consumers have come to expect access to the latest news from television broadcasts, such as those presented by the Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), instead of having to wait until the next day to read about it in the newspapers.

In addition, various Web sites sprang up in the 1990s to specialize in classified advertisements—for everything from jobs to used items to lonely hearts—in direct competition with newspapers. In order to compete with the growth of television news networks and the Internet, newspapers began to move online in the 1990s. This created something of a feedback loop as consumers came to depend on the newspaper Web sites for current news, and the papers were thus induced to put more resources into competing on the Web; this in turn led to the addition of still more multimedia content, such as photographs, audio, and video, as well as blogs (essentially editorials) and forums to attract interaction with their readers. None of these moves was of much help, however, because of the loss of newsstand sales and advertising revenues for print copies. Indeed, some in the news industry have predicted that classified advertising eventually will disappear from all newspapers.

Thus far, the challenges have been less sharply delineated for magazines, although in both cases it is apparent that, even as geography and scale have diminished in significance as determinants of potential market size and profitability, it is those mastheads with high credibility among consumers (such as The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Economist) that have fared best in the convergent online media space.

World Information and Communication Order

The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO or NWIO) is a term that was coined in a debate over media representations of the developing world in UNESCO in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The term was widely used by the MacBride Commission, a UNESCO panel chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Seán MacBride, which was charged with creation of a set of recommendations to make global media representation more equitable. The MacBride Commission produced a report titled "Many Voices, One World", which outlined the main philosophical points of the New World Information Communication Order.

History

The fundamental issues of imbalances in global communication had been discussed for some time. The American media scholar Wilbur Schramm noted in 1964 that the flow of news among nations is thin, that much attention is given to developed countries and little to less-developed ones, that important events are ignored and reality is distorted. (Mass Media and National Development, Stanford University Press, 1964, p. 65). From a more radical perspective, Herbert Schiller observed in 1969 that developing countries had little meaningful input into decisions about radio frequency allocations for satellites at a key meeting in Geneva in 1963. (Mass Communications and American Empire, Beacon Press, 1969, p. 140). Schiller pointed out that many satellites had military applications. Intelsat which was set up for international co-operation in satellite communication, was also dominated by the United States. In the 1970s these and other issues were taken up by the Non-Aligned Movement and debated within the United Nations and UNESCO.

NWICO grew out of the New International Economic Order of 1974. From 1976-1978, the New World Information and Communication Order was generally called the shorter New World Information Order or the New International Information Order. The start of this discussion is the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) as associated with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) starting from the early 1970s. Mass media concerns began with the meeting of non-aligned nations in Algiers, 1973; again in Tunis 1976, and later in 1976 at the New Delhi Ministerial Conference of Non-Aligned Nations. The 'new order' plan was textually formulated by Tunisia's Information Minister Mustapha Masmoudi. Masmoudi submitted working paper No. 31 to the MacBride Commission. These proposals of 1978 were titled the 'Mass Media Declaration.' The MacBride Commission at the time was a 16-member body created by UNESCO to study communication issues.

Among those involved in the movement were the Latin American Institute for the Study of Transnationals (ILET). One of its co-founders, Juan Somavia was a member of the MacBride Commission. Another important voice was Mustapha Masmoudi, the Information Minister for Tunisia. In a Canadian radio program in 1983, Tom McPhail describes how the issues were pressed within UNESCO in the mid-1970s when the USA withheld funding to punish the organization for excluding Israel from a regional group of UNESCO. Some OPEC countries and a few socialist countries made up the amount of money and were able to get senior positions within UNESCO. NWICO issues were then advanced at an important meeting in 1976 held in Costa Rica.

The only woman member of the Commission was Betty Zimmerman, representing Canada because of the illness of Marshall McLuhan, who died in 1980. The movement was kept alive through the 1980s by meetings of the MacBride Round Table on Communication, even though by then the leadership of UNESCO distanced itself from its ideas.

The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity of 2005 puts into effect some of the goals of NWICO, especially with regard to the unbalanced global flow of mass media. However, this convention was not supported by the USA, and it does not appear to be as robust as World Trade Organization agreements that support global trade in mass media and information.

Issues

A wide range of issues were raised as part of NWICO discussions. Some of these involved long-standing issues of media coverage of the developing world and unbalanced flows of media influence. But other issues involved new technologies with important military and commercial uses. The developing world was likely to be marginalized by satellite and computer technologies. The issues included:

* News reporting on the developing world that reflects the priorities of news agencies in London, Paris and New York. Reporting of natural disasters and military coups rather than the fundamental realities. At the time four major news agencies controlled over 80% of global news flow.

* An unbalanced flow of mass media from the developed world (especially the United States) to the underdeveloped countries. Everyone watches American movies and television shows.

* Advertising agencies in the developed world have indirect but significant effects on mass media in the developing countries. Some observers also judged the messages of these ads to be inappropriate for the Third World.

* An unfair division of the radio spectrum. A small number of developed countries controlled almost 90% of the radio spectrum. Much of this was for military use.

* There were similar concerns about the allocation of the geostationary orbit (parking spots in space) for satellites. At the time only a small number of developed countries had satellites and it was not possible for developing counties to be allocated a space that they might need ten years later. This might means eventually getting a space that was more difficult and more expensive to operate.

* Satellite broadcasting of television signals into Third World countries without prior permission was widely perceived as a threat to national sovereignty. The UN voted in the early 1970s against such broadcasts.

* Use of satellites to collect information on crops and natural resources in the Third World at a time when most developing countries lacked the capacity to analyse this data.

* At the time most mainframe computers were located in the United States and there were concerns about the location of databases (such as airline reservations) and the difficulty of developing countries catching up with the US lead in computers.

* The protection of journalists from violence was raised as an issue for discussion. For example, journalists were targeted by various military dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s. As part of NWICO debates there were suggestions for study on how to protect journalists and even to discipline journalists who broke "generally recognized ethical standards". However, the MacBride Commission specifically came out against the idea of licensing journalists (Many Voices, One World, p. 236).

Media Conglomeration

Also referred to as media institutions and media groups. A media conglomerate describes companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.

As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively

A conglomerate is, by definition, a large company that consists of divisions of seemingly unrelated businesses.

It is questionable whether media companies are unrelated, as of 2007[update]. The trend has been strongly for the sharing of various kinds of content (news, film and video, music for example). The media sector is tending to consolidate, and formerly diversified companies may appear less so as a result. Therefore the term media group may also be applied. It has not so far replaced the more traditional usage.

critisism

Critics have accused the larger conglomerates of dominating media, especially news, and refusing to publicize or deem "newsworthy" information that would be harmful to their other interests, and of contributing to the merging of entertainment and news (sensationalism) at the expense of tough coverage of serious issues. They are also accused of being a leading force for the standardization of culture (see globalization, Americanization), and they are a frequent target of criticism by various groups which often perceive the news organizations as being biased toward special interests.

There is also the issue of concentration of media ownership, reducing diversity in both ownership and programming (TV shows and radio shows). There is also a strong trend in the U.S. for conglomerates to eliminate localism in broadcasting, instead using broadcast automation and voice tracking, sometimes from another city in another state. Some radio stations use prepackaged and generic satellite-fed programming with no local content, except the insertion of radio ads.

conglomaration of media ownership

Concentration of media ownership refers to the relative proportion between two quantities: first, the numbers of people or parties who own, control, or influence a given medium; and second, the numbers of people or parties who are exposed to, affected by, or influenced by, that medium. This topic is of particular importance as it relates to the sociological study of how people's beliefs are formed, and how people's actions are then based on those beliefs. This topic is also important as it relates to the study of editorial independence, media bias, and freedom of the press.

Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation) also refers to the view that the majority of the major media outlets are owned by a proportionately small number of conglomerates and corporations. In that sense, the term "media consolidation" is used especially by those who view such consolidation as sociologically detrimental, dangerous, or problematic. This term may refer to states of oligopoly or monopoly in a given media industry, or to the sociological significance of the proportionately low number of "mass media," or "mainstream media" media conglomerates.

Concentration of media ownership is an issue globally, regionally, and also within particular nations.

Concentration of media ownership globally

Globally, large media conglomerates include, National Amusements, Viacom, CBS Corporation, Time Warner, News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Sony, General Electric, Vivendi SA, The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Corporation, Organizações Globo and Lagardère Group.

As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively

 

Alternative media

Alternative media are media (newspapers, radio, television, movies, Internet, etc.) which are alternatives to the business or government-owned mass media. Proponents of alternative media argue that the mainstream media are biased. While sources of alternative media can also be biased (sometimes proudly so), proponents claim that the bias is significantly different than that of the mainstream media, hence these media provide an "alternative" viewpoint. As such, advocacy journalism tends to be a component of many alternative outlets.

Because the term "alternative" has connotations of self-marginalization, some media outlets now prefer the term "independent" over "alternative".

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky proposed a concrete model for the filtering processes (biases) of mainstream media, especially in the United States, called the propaganda model. They tested this empirically and presented extensive quantified evidence supporting the model. Authors such as Louis Althusser have also written in detail about the problems of the mainstream press, and their writings have inspired the creation of many alternative press efforts.[citation needed] Socialist communication scholar Robert W. McChesney, inspired in part by the work of Chomsky and Herman, has linked the failures of the mainstream press primarily to corporate ownership, pro-corporate public policy, and the myth of "professional journalism." He has published extensively on the failures of the mainstream press, and advocates scholarship in the study of the political economy of the media, the growth of alternative media, and comprehensive media policy reforms.

Press

The alternative press consists of printed publications that provide a different or dissident viewpoint than that provided by major mainstream and corporate newspapers, magazines, and other print media.

Factsheet Five publisher Mike Gunderloy described the alternative press "as sort of the 'grown-up' underground press. Whole Earth, the Boston Phoenix, and Mother Jones are the sorts of things that fall in this classification."In contrast, Gunderloy described the underground press as "the real thing, before it gets slick, co-opted, and profitable. The underground press comes out in small quantities, is often illegible, treads on the thin ice of unmentionable subjects, and never carries ads for designer jeans."

Underground press

The phrase underground press is most often used to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations. It also refers to illegal publications under oppressive governments, for example, the samizdat and bibuła in the Soviet Union and Poland respectively.

This movement borrowed the name from previous underground presses such as the Dutch underground press during the Nazi occupations of the 1940s. The French resistance also published an underground press and prisoners of war (POWs) published an underground newspaper called Pow wow. In Eastern Europe, also since approximately the 1940, underground publications were known by the name samizdat. Those predecessors were truly "underground," meaning they were illegal, thus published and distributed covertly. While the countercultural "underground" papers frequently battled with governmental authorities, for the most part they were distributed openly through a network of street vendors, newsstands and head shops, and thus reached a wide audience.

Development Communication

Development Communication, simply defined, is the use of communication to promote social development. More specifically, it refers to the practice of systematically applying the processes, strategies, and principles of communication to bring about positive social change. The practice of development communication can be traced back to efforts undertaken in various parts of the world during the 1940s, but the widespread application of the concept came about because of the problems that arose in the aftermath of World War II . The rise of the communication sciences in the 1950s saw a recognition of the field as an academic discipline, with Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm, and Everett Rogers being the earliest influential advocates. The term "Development Communication" was first coined in 1972 by Nora C. Quebral, who defines the field as

"the art and science of human communication linked to a society's planned transformation from a state of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equity and the larger unfolding of individual potential."

The theory and practice of development communication continues to evolve today, with different approaches and perspectives unique to the varied development contexts the field has grown in.

Development communication is characterized by conceptual flexibility and diversity of communication techniques used to address the problem. Some approaches in the “tool kit” of the field include: information dissemination and education, behavior change, social marketing, social mobilization, media advocacy, communication for social change, and participatory development communication.

History

The theories and practices of development communication sprang from the many challenges and opportunities that faced development oriented institutions in the last century. And since these institutions existed in different contexts, different schools of development communication have arisen in different places over time. Manyozo (2006) suggests that the history field can be broken down into those of six different schools of development communication, with the Bretton Woods school being the dominant paradigm in international literature, and the other schools being the Latin American, Indian, Los Baños, African,and the participatory development communication schools.

The growing interest for these kind of applications is also reflected in the work of the World Bank, which is very active in promoting this field through its Development Communication division and recently (June 2008) published the Development Communication Sourcebook, a resource addressing the history, concepts and practical applications in this discipline.

The Bretton Woods school

The "Bretton Woods school of development communication" is a term that has been applied to the development communication approaches that arose with the economic strategies outlined in the Marshall Plan after World War two, and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1944.The descriptive term is not widely used in the field, but has been used to differentiate between different "schools" or approaches to development which have historically evolved, sometimes independently, at later points in history and in other parts of the world. Leading theorists under this school included Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm, and Everett Rogers. Due to his pioneering influence in the field, Rogers has often been termed the "father of development communication."

Originally, the paradigm involved production and planting of development in indigenous and uncivilized societies. This western approach to development communication was criticized early on, especially by Latin American researchers such as Luis Ramiro Beltan and Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, because it tended to locate the problem in the underdeveloped nation rather than its unequal relations with powerful economies. There was also an assumption that Western models of industrial capitalism are appropriate for all parts of the world. Many projects for development communication failed to address the real underlying problems in poor countries such as lack of access to land, agricultural credits and fair market prices for products.

Development Communication in India

The history of organised development communication in India can be traced to rural radio broadcasts in the 1940s. As is logical, the broadcasts used indigenous languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada.

Independent India's earliest organized experiments in development communication started with Community Development projects initiated by the union government in 1950's. The government, guided by socialistic ideals of its constitution and the first generation of politicians, started massive developmental programmes throughout the country. While field publicity was given due importance for person-to-person communication - also because the level of literacy was very low in rural areas - radio played an equally important role in reaching messages to the masses. Universities and other educational institutions - especially the agricultural universities, through their extension networks - and international organisations under the UN umbrella carried the dev-comm experiments further.

Development communication in India, a country of sub-continental proportions, acquires many connotations. On one end of the spectrum are the tools and techniques tocally applied by charitable and not-for-profit organisations with very close inter-personal relations among the communicators and on the other end is the generic, far-off, one-way sort of communication emanating from the government.

The need for development communication continues since a large population, over 600 million, lives in rural areas and depends directly on agriculture. Poverty is reducing as percentage of population but still over 200 million are very poor as of 2008. They all, and the urban slum dwellers, need government support in different forms. Therefore, communication from the government remains highly relevant. In addition to the traditional ways, a new form of communication is being tried by the federal government to support its developmental activities, though at a limited scale. Called Public Information Campaigns, public shows are organised in remote areas where information on social and developmental schemes is given, seminars and workshops are held, villagers and their children are engaged in competitions, messages are given through entertainment shows. In addition, government organisations and corporates involved in rural businesses display their wares and services in stalls lining the main exhibition area. This approach brings various implementing agencies and service / goods providers while the information providers encourage the visitors to make the best use of various schemes and services available.

Community radio is another new medium getting a foothold in rural India, though in patches. NGOs and educational institutions are given licence to set up a local community radio station to broadcast information, advisories and messages on developmental aspects. Participation of local community is encouraged. As community radio provides a platform to villagers to broadcast local issues, it has the potential to elicit positive action from local politicians and civil servants.

 

Mass media reach in India

Mass media in India is that part of Indian media which aims to reach wide audience. Besides the news media, which includes print, radio and television, the internet is playing an increasing role, alogn with the growth of the Indian blooging community.

Mass media in India is that part of Indian media which aims to reach wide audience. Besides the news media, which includes print, radio and television, the internet is playing an increasing role, alogn with the growth of the Indian blooging community.

Compared with many other developing countries, the Indian press is relatively unfettered, except for obstacles in the way of setting up media companies which were part of the pre - 1990 licenxe raj. In 2001, India had 45,974 newspapers, including 5364 daily newspapers published in over 100 languages. The largest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (20,589), followed by English (7,596), Marathi (2,943), Urdu (2,906), Bengali (2,741),Gujarati (2,215), Tamil (2,119), Kannada (1,816), Malayalam (1,505) and telugu (*1,289). The Hindi daily press has a of over 23 million coppies, followed by English with over 8 million copies. There are several major publishing groups in India, the most prominent among them being the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, The Hindu group, the Indian Express group, the Hindustan Group, the Malayala Manorama Group, the Mathrubhumi group, the Kerala Kaunmudi group, the Sahara group, the Bhaskar group, and the Dainik Jagran group.

India has more than 40 domestic news agencies. The Express News Service, the Press Trust of India, and the united News of India are among the major news agencies.

Googlization

Googlization is a term to describe the growing 'creep' of Google's search technologies and the aesthetics into more and more web application and contexts, as well as tradition-rich institutions such as the library (see Google Books Library Project). The rapid rise of search media, particularly the global Google, is part of new media history and draw attention to issue of access and to relationships between commercial interests and media.

John Battelle and Alex Salkever in 2003 first introduced the term ‘googlization’ to mean the dominance of Google over nearly all forms of informational commerce on the web.Initially specializing in text-based Internet searching, Google has expanded its services to include image searching, web-based email, online mapping, video sharing, news delivery, instant messaging, mobile phones, and services aimed at the academic community. Google has entered partnerships with established media interests such as Time Warner AOL, News Corporation, the New York Times, and various new agencies such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and the UK Press Association. Google has therefore become a giant with complex entanglements with traditional and new media.

Since the beginning of 2000, media scholars have been analyzing and aware of the impact of Googlization to modern human society. Geert Lovink argues against the society’s growing dependency on Google search retrieval.The Googlization of Everything, a book in progress by Siva Vaidhyanathan, provides a critical interpretation of how Google is disrupting culture, commerce, and community; Richard A. Rogers points out that Googlization connotes media concentration—an important political economy style critique of Google’s taking over of one service after another online; Liz Losh also claims that the Googlization of the BNF has brought considerable public attention in major magazine and newspapers in France.

 

Narrowcasting

Narrowcasting has traditionally been understood as the dissemination of information (usually by radio or television) to a narrow audience, not to the general public. Some forms of narrowcasting involve directional signals or use of encryption. In the context of out-of-home advertising, this term often refers to the display of content on a digital signage network.

Narrowcasting involves aiming media messages at specific segments of the public defined by values, preferences, or demographic attributes. Also called niche marketing or target marketing. Narrowcasting is based on the idea that mass audiences do not exist. An example of narrowcasting in this context is the installation of the Cabvision network in London's black cabs which shows limited pre-recorded television programmes interspersed with targeted advertising to taxicab passengers.

Narrowcasting is also sometimes applied to podcasting, since the audience for a podcast is often specific and sharply defined.Narrowcasting is a form of broadcasting, if the latter term is understood as the "wide dissemination of content through mechanical or electronic media" as defined by Dr. Jonathan Sterne of McGill University.Marketing experts are often interested in narrowcast media, since access to such content implies exposure to a specific and clearly defined prospective consumer audience.

narrowcast

A narrowcast is the transmission of data to a specific list of recipients. Cable television is an example of narrowcasting since the cable TV signals are sent only to homes that have subscribed to the cable service. In contrast, terrestrial TV uses a broadcast model in which the signals are transmitted everywhere and anyone with an antenna can receive them.

Interactive narrowcasting

A new type of narrowcasting is evolving in the form of interactive narrowcasting. Interactive narrowcasting enables shoppers to influence the content displayed via narrowcasting. One way of doing this is via a touch screen. More and more systems are being introduced into the narrowcasting market.

User-driven content also provides an excellent medium for narrowcast marketing, provided the correct product is matched with the appropriate media.

These systems enable brands to communicate with their customers via a personal computer. The advantage of the majority of interactive narrowcasting projects is that they are more effective and less cost absorbing overtime.There are also one-way, traditional media approaches to narrowcasting such as Internet Talk Radio. Unlike broadcast radio programs, these programs are focused on a specific (narrow) topic. For more information see also Podcasts, and Video blogs.

Microtargeting

Microtargeting is the use by political parties and election campaigns of direct marketing datamining techniques that involve predictive market segmentation (aka cluster analysis). It is used by United States Republican and Democratic political parties and candidates to track individual voters and identify potential supporters.

They then use various means of communication--direct mail, phone calls, home visits, television, radio, web advertising, email, text messaging, etc--to communicate with voters, crafting messages to build support for fundraising, campaign events, volunteering, and eventually to turn them out to the polls on election day. Microtargeting's tactics rely on transmitting a tailored message to a subgroup of the electorate on the basis of unique information about that subgroup.